Sunday, March 18, 2012

Does the Flatbush Jewish Journal Contradict Itself?

This week, there is going to be a special election for a district in the New York State Senate. This district is located in Brooklyn and covers a significant portion of the Jewish population in Brooklyn.

As you can expect, there is a significant amount of political maneuvering going on, with the two candidates -- Lew Fidler and David Storobin, looking to secure rabbinical endorsement.

The Flatbush Jewish Journal, a community newspaper known for it's
right-wing leanings, put a notice on the front page of the latest issue
stating "It Is Prohibited To Vote for Lew Fidler."

The cover directs you to an advertisement on page 20, where a list of 42 prominent rabbis, including such names as Rabbi Chaim Yisroel Belsky, Rabbi David Cohen, Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzky and others, state that it is forbidden to vote for Lew Fidler.

The exact wording of the advertisement states that because of Mr. Fidler's votes concerning gay marriage "It is therefore considered a Chillul HaShem and Assur [forbidden according to Torah law] to vote for or to provide funding, campaign assistance, public recognition or any type of support to Councilman Lewis Fidler. To do so would amount to being mesisy'ayah ovrei aveirah (abetting transgression of the Torah's commandments)."

Pretty powerful words, if you ask me. In short, it is forbidden to do anything to help Mr. Fidler win the election according to these leading Rabbanim.

Except, perhaps, accept an advertisement in support of Mr. Fidler, because that's exactly what the Flatbush Jewish Journal did. On page 18 (which is right before the ad above), they have an advertisement listing people who support Lew Fidler.

So, what's the story here? It's forbidden to help Mr. Fidler's campaign (except, perhaps, when he pays for an advertisement?)

Let’s be generous, and assume that the paper is running ads without ascribing to the ads’ content. So the anti-Fidler group paid for an ad on the front page. That doesn’t mean that the paper’s editor believes that helping Fidler is assur.

This is why I could never live in Brooklyn, and why I never allow anyone, especially Rabbis, to do my thinking for me.

By the way, Belsky is the same guy who was against reporting suspected child sexual abuse to the secular authorities. In my book, that makes him a piece of crap. In fact, anyone who tells someone else it is 'assur' to vote for so-and-so is a piece of crap.

A. that dozens of rabbonim (their names on the back) endorsed Storobin

B. That Storobin falsely claimed [some of] these rabbonim endorsed him. The card included images of letters from certain rabbonim clearly stating they did not endorse him.

So who’s lying outright? Who cares? Probably each side has their version of the truth. If a rabbi was asked for an endorsement and did not clearly, loudly say “When Hell freezes over!”---Hey, folks, we got Rabbi So-&-So!”